Latest Reports

It’s been a testing year for politics but a wonderful year for books. To help Malcolm Turnbull make the most of the holiday season, we have once again collated a Summer Reading List for the Prime Minister.

Australia’s school education system is not fit for purpose, and we need to rethink the way we teach students, support teachers and run schools. To halt the decline, we should make the system more adaptive.

Australia needs to reform the way we collect and use information about patient safety, to reduce the risk of more tragedies in our hospitals. The system is awash with data, but the information is poorly collated, not shared with patients, and often not given to doctors.

Road congestion charges should be introduced in Sydney and Melbourne. An examination of 3.5 million Google Maps trip-time estimates across more than 350 routes suggests both cities could face traffic gridlock in future unless decisive action is taken to manage congestion.

Urgent action is needed to reduce the risk of power blackouts this summer. But the danger is politicians panicking and rushing to decisions that push up electricity prices and make it harder to cut emissions. What’s needed is market reform, not government investments in generation.

Simple reforms to Australia’s health system could help save more than $320 million a year on avoidable hospital admissions and provide better care for people with diabetes, asthma, heart disease and other chronic conditions.

State governments should be wary of following the Turnbull Government’s advice to introduce “value capture” schemes to fund major new transport projects. A broad-based, low-rate land tax may be a better option.